3/08/2010 @ 6:00AM

The Highest-Paid College Basketball Coaches

By any normal business metric, the top-paid college basketball coaches in the NCAA are the most overpaid leaders in the U.S.

Take Kentucky’s John Calipari, No. 1 on our pay list. He parlayed a run at the national title with the University of Memphis Tigers into an eight-year, $32 million deal. It’s good money, sure, but it wouldn’t be out of place on the trading floor of any top-tier Wall Street firm or in the executive suite of hundreds of multinational businesses.

But measured against the revenue Calipari generates, his take-home looks outsized. Calipari (who left his two prior college programs–Massachusetts and Memphis–in hot water with the NCAA for alleged violations) pulls down 10% or so of the $35 million to $40 million that his program generates for the university (the entire athletic department generates $72 million a year, the school says). The corporate equivalent for Calipari’s pay package would be
Microsoft
handing Steve Ballmer $6 billion a year. The average NBA coach, who works twice as many games as his college counterpart, makes $4 million a year, about 3.5% of an average club’s revenue.

Nice work if you can get it, and less rare than you’d think. At least 25 of the 347 Division I college basketball coaches now strolling the sidelines earn $1 million or more annually, not including potential bonuses.

Following Calipari on our pay list are Florida’s Billy Donovan (a two-time national title winner), $3.3 million a year; Kansas’s Bill Self (a national title in 2008), $3 million a year; and Ohio State’s Thad Matta (national runner-up in 2007 and owner of a .749 career winning percentage), $2.5 million a year. University of Louisville’s Rick Pitino, one of the most storied names in the game thanks to his run at the University of Kentucky and in the NBA, pulls down $2.25 million a year.

Big-time basketball schools say they have little choice but to shell out big bucks. Keeping a top coach on campus means competing with the pros, where the average salary is $4 million. Calipari and Pitino have both coached there, and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski was once wooed by the New Jersey Nets. Also, consider that much of a coach’s income comes through outside sources like television and apparel deals instead of university coffers. Calipari’s deal with Kentucky lets the school handle such agreements while guaranteeing his $4 million a year. Other schools choose to guarantee less while allowing the coach to make his own side deals.

Mark Yost, author of Varsity Green, estimates that a March Madness appearance raises alumni giving by an average $450,000 per school, a fifth of a highly paid coach’s salary. The 10 highest-paid coaches in college hoops certainly win. Cumulatively, they boast a .735 lifetime winning percentage, 137 NCAA tournament appearances and nine national titles. That accounts for many more millions than they’ve been paid.

As for Calipari, Kentucky defends its contract with the coach wholeheartedly. “We’re in a competitive marketplace,” says Kentucky Deputy Athletic Director Rob Mullens. “There is a very thin pool of elite coaches that are movable, and he has all the things that the supporters of this program require.”

As CEO of Kentucky basketball, Calipari does endure an exhausting schedule. In addition to games and practices, there’s glad handing with corporate sponsors, face time with boosters, charity work and media responsibilities. Few would begrudge him a nice paycheck. But a 10th of his program’s revenues? Only in his line of work does a CEO get that kind of deal.